Mode(s)

Street Fighter X Tekken (ストリートファイター X 鉄拳,Sutorīto Faitā Kurosu Tekken?, pronounced Street Fighter Cross Tekken) is a crossver fighting game featuring characters from both the Street Fighter series and the Tekken series, released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, iOS, and PlayStation Vita.[1] The game is one of a pair of games, with the other being Tekken X Street Fighter, in development by Namco Bandai.[2] Street Fighter X Tekken uses Street Fighter IV's engine; Tekken X Street Fighter, on the other hand, will be using Tekken's engine.

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The game uses a modified Street Fighter IV engine. Gameplay is focused on "Tag Team combat where players select two fighters to deliver knockout assist attacks and special combos". The KO system works similarly to Tekken Tag Tournament, where the fight ends when one member of the team has been knocked out. There is also a "Customize Color" option and "Scramble Mode" battle, where all four chosen characters battle at the same time in their respective teams, reminiscent of the Street Fighter Alpha Dramatic Battles.[1]
A new feature is the "Pandora" mode, where players can relinquish their partner in order to gain a temporary surge in power. As seen in the trailers, this new mode also ties in to the game's story.

Another new feature is the Gem System, where players can add up to three gems to their character in order to enhance their abilities and stats. Most gems are immediately in effect, though some gems will only take effect when certain conditions are met on the battlefield alone.

Color Edit, which was last seen in Capcom vs. SNK 2, has also returned; players are able to color skin, hair, and all layers of clothes, starting with very few colors but being able to download more via the Store.

The main story of the game revolves around a strange, cubical object that crash-landed on Earth, somewhere in Antarctica. Nobody knows exactly what the object is, where it came from or what purpose it has, only that it appears to release a powerful energy when beings come into conflict around it. As a result, researchers nickname the strange box "Pandora". Several characters from the Tekken and Street Fighter universes form teams of two and search for Pandora, each with their own motivations.[3]

DLC costumes, called "Swap Costumes", were announced; Street Fighter Swap Costumes are Tekken-inspired, and Tekken Swap Costumes are Street Fighter-inspired. Also present are "Alternate Costumes", which see fighters don the costumes of characters from their own series, as well as some-all new outfits.[11]

Prior to tournament EVO 2010 at Las Vegas, Nevada, Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono was teasing a yet to be announced game which was initially believed to be a new Darkstalkers entry.[12] Before EVO 2010's Super Street Fighter IV finals, Ono was confronted by Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada on stage after teasing more of the game that would officially be announced at the 2010 Comic-Con. During the Super Street Fighter IV panel at Comic-Con, Harada appeared out of the crowd and went towards the stage while handing out free copies of Tekken 6, which was met with cheers and boos. Ono and Harada then confirmed the existence of Street Fighter X Tekken.[13] Both the teaser trailer and early gaming footage of Street Fighter X Tekken was also shown at Comic-Con.[13] During the announcement, Harada also revealed that he has a related project under way, which is being developed by Namco and which the gameplay will be similar to that of Tekken.[13] Other Capcom games are referenced in Street Fighter X Tekken, such as Dino Crisis, which has a stage based around one of its levels.[14]

The PC port of Street Fighter X Tekken was developed by Polish studio QLoc.[15] A portable version of the game was announced for the PlayStation Vita at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2011.[16] Downloadable content is cross-compatible between both the PlayStation 3 and Vita versions of the game.[17]

Nathan Drake from Naughty Dog's Uncharted series was considered for inclusion as a guest character, but the idea was scrapped during development.[18] Yoshinori Ono stated that there is no exclusive character for the Xbox 360 version, stating: "We do have the exclusive characters for the Sony platform. We have Cole, the two Sony cats, Kuro and Toro. But basically for the Xbox 360, we were in discussions with them (Microsoft) for which character to put in as an exclusive, but we weren't able to decide on a character because of differences in timing and things like that".[19]

Capcom senior VP Christian Svensson stated that there would be no North American retail release for the PC version and that it would instead be sold digitally through Steam. However, Asia and Europe would receive a retail box release of the PC version. Ono stated that the reason is that he does not want an on-disc DLC for the PC version and fears that hackers may create mods to crack the game and access the DLC.[25][26]

The Special Edition features a "build-it-yourself arcade cabinet bank" (approximately five inches high), prequel comic book by UDON and 36 gems, which includes all pre-order DLC packs ("World Warrior", "Iron Curtain" and "Lightning Legs") plus an exclusive Special Edition DLC pack ("King of Iron Fist").[27] The Special Edition also comes with nine exclusive gems ("Cross Arts" DLC) only available as a pre-order bonus for the edition, making it total of 45 gems if the edition is pre-ordered.[28] The Collectors Edition features the "World Warrior" DLC, which includes nine gems, all of which provide characters with different attributes and properties. Also included is a 46 track original soundtrack spanning two discs and a 44-page art book.[29]

In the Asian market the special edition includes DLC for a complete pack of gems, a two-disc soundtrack, 41 character cards with art on one side and move details on the other, and Bobble Budds bobble heads modeled after Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono and Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada.[30] The three big game retailers in Australia, EB Games, JB Hi-Fi and Game shared three pre-order bonuses. EB Games offers the exclusive Special Edition, JB Hi-Fi offered the standard edition, along with a 60 cm x 90 cm wall scroll featuring Ryu and Kazuya Mishima, while Game offered the standard edition bundled with a Kazuya and Ken T-shirt.[31]

Both console versions of Street Fighter X Tekken received positive reviews from most critics, with praise going to the game's modes and tag team gameplay. The PlayStation Vita version however received lesser reviews than its console counterparts, being criticized for the graphics, long loading times, clunky controls and "poor competitive balance".

The most complaints Street Fighter X Tekken recieved was the inclusion of characters on the disc that can only be used by paying more, this resulted in heavy criticism by fans and publishers as gamers would pay an additional amount of money for something that was completed before release and on disc.[32][33] Capcom responded stating they intended to add the characters locked in the retail versions to save hard drive space but the respone was only met with more criticism.[32][34] The game's DLC scandal led to many online debates and articles about on-disc DLC, and the controversy of game developers having buyers paying more than neccessary for something that is already completed, in the gaming industry.

Other subjects of criticism were missing fan favorites in the playable cast, certain aspect of the game mechanics (such as the Gem System which was met with mixed respones) and that online tag-team matches are not available for the Xbox 360 version of the game although the feature was advertised and printed in the manual. Capcom stated this would not be fixed with a patch.[35]

By two months after its release, Street Fighter x Tekken sold over 1 million copies.[36] However, this was about 40% short of Capcom's expectations.[37] Initially, as of March 31, 2012, Street Fighter X Tekken had sold 1.4 million units worldwide, in contrast to Capcom's expectations that it would sell 2 million units (though sales have since continued to rise to 1.7 million as of March 31, 2014).[38] Capcom believed that the game's poor performance may be in part due to "cannibalism" of the fighting game genre, meaning too many fighting games were released in too short a time.[39] The PlayStation 3 version got to number 3 in the UK physical sales charts.[40] The PlayStation Vita version received a lukewarm response, selling only 5,420 copies during its first week in Japan.[41] However, in May 2017, following the release of Tekken 7, this version of the game topped the European download chart.[42]